Regex to find comment in c# source file

Question

I can't get my regex to match the header of a c# code file. I basically want need to return the header if it exists.

Example:

#define debug
//****************************************************************************************************
//  <copyright file="" company="">
//      Copyright (c) . All rights reserved.
//  </copyright>
//  <project>Engine</project>
//****************************************************************************************************

code here

//some other comment here

more code here

//another comment here

My regex looks like this:

(?:/\\*(?:[^*]|(?:\\*\+[^*/]))*\\*\+/)|(?://.*)

but it only matches this line: //**********************************************************

and not the rest of the comment.

Comments can also end like this "*/".

whats wrong with my regex? why doesn't it catch the whole block?

I am using MultiLine, but it only returns 1 line and that's the first. I am coding in C# — user669550
– user669550, Commented Mar 21, 2011 at 14:10

Josh M. · Accepted Answer · 2011-03-21 14:05:07Z

1

Try this one - and you can pull out the entire comment (with the "//" or the group within to get just the text. This will return a match for each line. Please use the "Multiline" option to run this:

^/[/|*](.+)$

answered Mar 21, 2011 at 14:05

community wiki

Josh M.

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4 Comments

Josh M. Over a year ago

Sure, it's unclear if the asker whats the // or /* or */ part of the comment or just the "body."

user669550 Over a year ago

This also works, and again I didn't think it would return an array, but just a single block with the whole comment.

user669550 Over a year ago

I want the whole comment and not just the body:)

Josh M. Over a year ago

This does return the whole comment - one line at a time. Instead of grabbing the value from the group, just grab the entire match value.

Stephen Chung · Accepted Answer · 2011-03-21 14:05:42Z

1

Need multiline

(^\/\/.*?$|\/\*.*?\*\/)

answered Mar 21, 2011 at 14:05

community wiki

Stephen Chung

3 Comments

user669550 Over a year ago

This works, and actually my own example does also. I see that it returns and array with the resut, but I was just expecting a single string with the whole block:x

Stephen Chung Over a year ago

Mine is a generic one for matching comments. If you just want to match your exact format (notice that it really is a bunch of //'s together), you can try: (^//\*.*?$)+ (multiline). This will match all lines prefixed with //* in a single block. Sorry I wasn't clear with what you want before.

Stephen Chung Over a year ago

Now if you only want a block bracketed by stars (on the first and last line only): (^//\*+?$(?:^//.*?$)^//\*+$)

Mario · Accepted Answer · 2011-03-21 14:13:44Z

0

I guess you'd like to extract the pseudo-xml code so the following expression should work. Note that you'll still have to remove the leading "//" in each line.

//\*+\n((?://.*\n)+)//\*+

answered Mar 21, 2011 at 14:13

community wiki

Mario

Comments

frank tan · Accepted Answer · 2016-06-29 01:36:08Z

0

Using the regex pattern: (/*([^]|[\r\n]|(*+([^/]|[\r\n])))*+/)|(//.)

see more https://code.msdn.microsoft.com/How-to-find-code-comments-9d1f7a29/

answered Jun 29, 2016 at 1:36

community wiki

frank tan

Comments

Uttam Ughareja · Accepted Answer · 2025-07-27 08:16:27Z

0

If you have multiline comments using /*.... */ then following will work

\/\*[\s\S]*?\*\/

answered Jul 27 at 8:16

community wiki

Uttam Ughareja

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